project 1980 Austin Princess

[junkyarddog]

That's a very pleasing result!

 

Looks factory.

[PhilA]

Very nice.

 

Silver looks good though if you change it, aged bronze ftw. Then you have an excuse to get a crystal decanter style cigar lighter knob in amber plastic, to match- this kinda shape

 

 

Phil

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

Outstanding Vulg. All you need to do now is refit the bumpers, paint it beige and you're back where you started! 

 

Good to see that nasty purpleness being banished. 

[vulgalour]

Outstanding Vulg. All you need to do now is refit the bumpers, paint it beige and you're back where you started! 

NEVAR!  In all seriousness, I actually liked the purple when it was on there but I do like where I am with things now, feels more resolved and it's less work than trying to colour code everything to go the purple route, which is a bonus.  If it wasn't for the serendipitous orange carpet redye, we'd still be going the purple route on this one.  Just wish I had the time/money to get the Lotus alloys refurbished and shod with nice tyres, I really want them back on the car.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

 Just wish I had the time/money to get the Lotus alloys refurbished and shod with nice tyres, I really want them back on the car.

 

 

 

Do it. It doesn't look right without them.

[vulgalour]

There's too many other jobs still ahead of them yet so they have to wait.

[SiC]

Looks pretty darn good.

 

If you worked in the BL factory at the time, maybe things wouldn't have cocked up for them.

[Zelandeth]

Here are the sodding equivalent I have to the seeds your tree drops.

 

 

That's been parked there a couple of hours.

 

Precisely how the damn things get in here I'm still not 100% certain.

 

 

However *every* time I drive the van more than about ten feet another few appear on top of the fly screen.

 

There should be rules against putting greenery right by driveways!

 

...If I find those pine needles in the speedometer or something daft tomorrow, I blame you for giving the tree ideas.

[Dippy]

Love the dashboard Even got me looking on the bay at veneer for my wedge. It certainly looks like a very satisfying job.

[vulgalour]

It is, apart from having to dismantle the dashboard which is made of a lot of difficult to align parts.  If I had to describe this job in a single word it would be 'faff'.

[vulgalour]

Today I am dealing with the water leak.  This is caused by the terrible pot metal the thermostat housing are made from just dissolving away until no seal can be made.  This is after I'd sanded the top flat of corrosion to see if there was enough material to create a seal, there wasn't.

20180801-01 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

On this one, someone has hacked at it to get the waxstat out in the past, they have a habit of seizing in place and can be a real nuisance to shift.  So there's a fair bit of damage to correct here.

20180801-02 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

With the various surfaces cleaned back with the soft wire wheel in the Dremel, everything was ready for trying out the ultra stinky (it really does smell bad, and the smell is unique) JB Waterweld I'd ordered online.  I've used other leak sealant putties before and they didn't really work that well after a few heat cycles, just didn't want to bond with the metal of the housing for some reason.

20180801-03 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

It's a two-part epoxy deal so you chop a bit off, knead it until uniform, and wonder how anything can smell so bad.  You then have to work fairly quickly with it as you don't get a lot of time before it starts to cure, and then leave it for an hour before you can sand it to shape.

20180801-04 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

It sands really nicely.  Annoyingly, two big pieces just dropped of as I was sanding.

20180801-05 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

There was more sealing surface available than previously so I tried the cap on anyway to see what would happen.  Predictably, it still leaked, just from a different location now.

20180801-06 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

On with another round of putty.  Much better this time, though it was still having trouble bonding in one spot for some reason.

20180801-07 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

... aaaand still leaking.  From a different point this time and much less so I had a bit of a think...

20180801-08 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

... removed the cap and reseated it, ensuring both surfaces were clean and dry.  Leaking from a different place now.

20180801-09 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

Final attempt I squished the cap tabs down a bit to increase the clamping force.  That sorted it.  No more leaks.

20180801-10 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

An original housing has been sourced through the club (thank you, Beiderbecke) which I'll be fitting to my original cylinder head with the knackered housing stuck in it and I'll then swap back to the original cylinder head for the car since that's the only thing wrong with it.  That will also do away with the secondary oil filler cap that we had to seal shut.  Doing the cylinder head on these is an absolute doddle, it's going to be more work to replace the thermostat housing than it is to swap the head.

 

[Des]

 

Still find the switch blank with the brake warning light in these really amusing.

 

 

 

If you know a better use for that space I'm sure British Leyland would welcome your input, might even reward you with a keyring and some brochures.

That dash is a veneereal wonder, the warning lights that look orange in the pics do introduce the carpet hue into the eyeline rather well, I wonder if some more highlighting across the dash might raise some orange grandeur befitting a Princess, not so much hosting an apprentice boys march effect but something like a subtle coachline on the glovebox lid and or doorcards.

[vulgalour]

Update time again.  Yesterday was a little North Shields chippy run and while the Princess made it there and back without drama, having someone new to the car behind the wheel highlighted some issues that needed attending.  A hesitation and occasional misfire turned out to be a loose HT lead (a different one to last time) and pushing that home resolved that.  The irritating noise that I had put down to the speedo cable (and which still might be that in part) got much louder on the drive over to the point that going over 60mph was horrendous to listen to.  The timing belt tensioner pulley at fault here, which is NLA.  The other issue was the headlight aim which was on the low side at MoT but it looks like they've dropped even lower, so I need to raise that up a bit so I can see where I'm going better at night.

 

Fortunately, I keep all sorts of rusty old rubbish and recently organised it all so I could dig out a spare set of headlight brackets in case I need to salvage the adjusters to replace any that might break when trying to adjust the headlights (a job for later when it's a bit darker), and I had a spare tensioner pulley.  The spare pulley doesn't look great, but spinning it and comparing it to spinning the one on the car revealed that it was at least a bit better.  The one on the car has a very slight wobble to it as you spin it, which is probably where the noise is coming from.  Removal is fiddly, but easy, requiring use of a 13mm spanner on two nuts.  You don't have to remove the belts to do this, you just have to be a bit patient with approach angles until the nut is finger tight.

 

20180812-01 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

The pulley looks worse than the one that came off because of surface corrosion.  A test drive on my usual route revealed that while this pulley isn't completely silent, it is an awful lot quieter than the one that came off.  It saves me spending £30 on a potential replacement in the form of a Ford Sierra pulley that does look remarkably similar and which, I'm told, is a reasonably good fit once spaced with a couple of washers.

 

I'll get one when I know I need it, for now the one on the car is adequate and not about to explode.

[captain_70s]

Hate to break it to you fella, but your lights are wrong.

 

[vulgalour]

I'm going to have to start wearing large shades at this rate.

[Pillock]

Good work noticing the different coloured door. Nothing gets past those lot!

[GrumpiusMaximus]

Good work noticing the different coloured door. Nothing gets past those lot!

 

 

It's like Bergerac is on Facebook...

[JeeExEll]

What's going on with the wiper blade on the 'camera car'?

[vulgalour]

Maybe they were off to Halfords to get a new wiper?  I was just heading over there for some satin black paint for my wiper arms.  It is a shame my lights are wrong and I've put a blue* door on the car.  I'll have to scrap it now.

[plasticvandan]

Mmm princess " fan" club,number of princess owners,zero?

[vulgalour]

It's on Facebook, it's bound to be bollocks.

[Pillock]

Ssssh. You're wrong.

[chompy_snake]

Anyone able to identify the broken wiper car from the dash?

[Pillock]

That chap who posted it is in the Maestro and Montero Owners Group on FB but it doesn't appear to be one of those.

 

He also drinks in a pub I used to go in for the quiz every week, and he likes Ed Sheeran.

[DodgeRover]

Can someone post that it is a BMW/ Austin joint venture prototype?

[theorganist]

I had just joined that page thinking that as it was for British cars it would be less of a bear pit than the barn find page. The first post I saw was the picture of Vulgalours Princess and some of the comments were your typical anti BL comments. I got into a slight argument with the guy who set the page up as he said that a Princess was not a "Classic" and that the Maxi wasn't either, apparently a classic is something that was ground breaking or set a trend. I should have mentioned the Allegro and Marina and see what he thought of those, the Maestro no doubt would have induced some kind of medical emergency!

 

I told him it was snobbery, clearly he only thinks British cars that you can drive wearing goggles or a flat cap and of course a pair of driving gloves merit the word classic.

[vulgalour]

It's great when people set rules about what is and isn't a Cl*ss*c. Anyone saying in the same breath that a classic is "ground breaking and sets a trend" and then dismisses the Maxi for being neither of these things is an idiot, quite frankly.

 

Generally speaking, if a car has made it to 30 years old as far as I'm concerned it's earned classic status. Some are worth more than others, some are faster, some are more interesting, but they've all survived far longer than they should have in various conditions and that's what should be praised above all. Be it an E-Type or a Maxi, an enthusiast can appreciate them even if they don't like them. Too often folks confuse opinion with fact, in this and so many other aspects of life.

[PhilA]

Generally that onus appears to be applied to vehicles that were "old", and not on everybody's driveway when they remember them being new.

 

Unfortunately, now quite a lot of these people would be upset because they themselves have reached "classic" or "vintage" age. It appears to be a form of denial.

 

Phil

[captain_70s]

I told him it was snobbery, clearly he only thinks British cars that you can drive wearing goggles or a flat cap and of course a pair of driving gloves merit the word classic.

I think its just general arsery.

 

Person Y has been told by people on the TV and down the pub that Car X was shit. If Person Z likes that car they must be wrong, because Car X is shit. Anybody who likes that car is suggesting that Person Y's opinion is wrong, and that makes Person Y very angry because Person Y needs validation to maintain their self worth.

[dozeydustman]

There was a big hoo-ha in Practical Classics about 20-25 years ago when I first got into classic motoring in my mid-late teens, people writing in and complaining that a Hillman/Chrysler/Talbot Avenger was "Too modern to be in the price guide", but lauded the inclusion of the Austin Princess/Ambassador and Morris Marina/Ital as classics - all 3 from the same sort of era. All 3 are definitely classics now, but back then I thought they were just old rammel.

 

Badge snobbery will unfortunately never go away. Hyundai, Kia and Dacia now make some cracking cars, but there will always be someone who turns their nose up at them with "I wouldn't be seen dead behind the wheel of that" without actually seeing what it's like on the road and will probably never be regarded as classics by the mainstream press or motoring world. If someone can't make an informed opinion on a car without putting it through their paces, they are a fool.

 

At the end of the day, one man's food is another man's poison.